The academic staff at Tolmie Theosophical Society Anthropology wing.
Dear readership, in times of crisis like these when we’re forced to draw down on the untold intellectual capital of our readership we realise how lucky we are not be an Uighur, a Hong Kong protester, Peter Dutton, (there should always be editorial balance) or just a Virgin airliner. Cos we’ve been told all the virgins are completely grounded, rooted and penniless.
From the sage of the near north comes this fascinating insight into cultural imperialism, a bit of social Darwinism and the pole- axing hypothetical that We; “those anointed by the crimson thread of kinship that unites us as inheritors of the White Empire under the all seeing beneficence of her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria, Defender of the faith, Empress of India, etc.etc, etc’, may not be the full bottle on archeology, anthropology and prehistoric art. In light of the restriction currently being exercised on purchasing of full-bottles at licensed liquor establishments we recommend you savour this one slowly, and send your correspondence, to ” Paleolithic Wine Appreciation Society’, 12 Cardboardcask St, Dubbo.N.S.W.
This from our esteemed anthropologist front the Margaret Meade anthropology chair, (the stool was broken) The Tolmie Theosophical Society, Private Bag, Emeritus Professor Ira Maine (OBE , Croix de Guerre Pour le Merite, Tidy Towns Award recipient 1988.)
Prof Ira Maine, with assistant developing Corona Vaccine
he writes…..
‘I was more than a bit amused when Australian archaeologists, Griffith’s Adam Brumm, Bruno David from Monash and Maxime Aubert from Griffith had the temerity to suggest that ancient cave paintings in Sulawesi were thousands of years older than those at Chauvet or Lascaux in France. The Poms, being long convinced that all forms of modern homo sapiens began in Huddersfield, pooh-poohed the notion. Influential archaeological scientists (Durham and Southampton Universities) implied that the work had been poorly done, that parts of the Sulawesi cave paintings might have been done much later and surely almost everyone was aware that archaeologically sound work can only be carried out by English professionals?
Javanese Sea Shell seller negotiating fair price with staff member.
And then there were the sea shells from Java which turned out to be slightly less than half a million years old and that the incised geometrical shapes cut into the shells very strongly suggested a very high level of cognition in the geezer woh did the incising.
Javanese paleolithics demonstrating distinctive dance technique and native costume
All of the above would suggest that the modern mind, the modern thinking process has been around for much longer than suggested and that the thick-as-a-brick shambling, half man, half gorilla promoted as part of our evolutionary past might need revising.
The doctrine of the ‘survival of the fittest’, a very timely and useful tool of the 19th century, gave God fearing people the right to burn, rape and butcher all over the Americas, the East and the South Seas. ‘Backward’ countries, those which had failed to industrialize, (so this notorious Darwinian , self-serving ‘philosophy’ suggested) were doomed to fail.
Oddly in all of these ‘backward’or ‘failed’ countries not one country, despite the propaganda, was discovered to have a population of mentally retarded people. In all cases the people were bright, intelligent and relatively happy. They were, in fact, just as bright, intelligent and happy as you or I. They hadn’t ‘developed’, hadn’t ‘ industrialized’, because they hadn’t felt the need to. What they had they were happy with. Despite this absence of ‘development’,, they exhibited no shortage of intelligence whatever.
Evidence, like Neanderthal DNA, paleolithic art flourishes to this very day.
The point I am trying to make here is that perhaps this has always been the case. Perhaps our brains have always been as complicated and sophisticated as they are now. How the brain is used simply depends on the complexity of the task involved. As far as Mother Nature is concerned, she has furnished us with a brain capable of creating either a spear head or a Hadron Collider. I believe mankind has only survived until now BECAUSE of this astonishing complexity of the brain and its capacity to adapt to almost any condition it finds itself in.
I find it very difficult to believe that what archaeology/paleontology offers us, as our cross-your-heart-and-swear-to-die ancestor, a half man, half gorilla.Frankenstein monster, can be true.. This stupid, shambling, moronic oaf would have lasted about five minutes. Unless of course, all the sabre-tooth tigers and their familiars were all mentally retarded as well.
This ground breaking research was to have been published in the CSIRO journal and Nature, but the authors recognising the fact the Australian Government has no interest in science, research or academic funding re- released their findings at the height of the Corona Crisis as ” Carry on Screaming” which made it extremely attractive to the Murdoch Press. And for an entirety of one week, took the suffering and martyrdom of Cardinal Pell off the front page of the Catholic Boys Daily, (the Australian) .
Ira. (His mark)
